The present invention relates generally to electronic connectors. More particularly, the present invention relates to electronic connectors that allow a user to quickly and easily determine the proper orientation of the connector with respect to a receptacle within which it is structured to be received.
One non-limiting context in which this situation arises is with a Universal Serial Bus. A Universal Serial Bus (“USB”) is an external bus that supports plug and play installation. Particularly, USB is a specification to establish communication between devices and a host controller such as a personal computer. Using a USB receptacle of a computer system, a user may connect and disconnect devices without shutting down or restarting the computer. For example, a USB receptacle may be used to connect peripheral devices such as speakers, telephones, CD-ROM drives, joysticks, tape drives, keyboards, scanners, memory drives, and cameras.
Flash drives represent a class of non-volatile semiconductor flash memory, and are typically embodied as a small hand-held portable device that contains a USB connector as an integral part of the device. The USB connector is inserted during use into a USB receptacle of a host system such as a personal computer, notebook computer, portable digital assistant (PDA), or the like. The memory system within the flash drive is electronically connected to the host system through the USB connector for transferring data therebetween. The memory system also receives operating power through the USB connector.
One common problem encountered by users of a variety peripheral devices, such as USB connectors, centers around determining the proper orientation of the connector with respect to the receptacle. This problem is described herein with respect to determining the proper orientation of a USB connector with respect to the USB receptacle, but it is understood that the difficulty of orienting a variety of connectors with respect to their corresponding receptacles is ubiquitous and arises with a variety of other devices, electrical connectors, and the like. As appreciated by those skilled in the art, a USB connector may only be inserted into a USB receptacle in one particular orientation. Typically, a user of a peripheral device with a USB connector will attempt to insert the connector into the USB receptacle in a first orientation. If the connector does not “fit” within the receptacle, the user will rotate the peripheral device by 180 degrees to arrive at the proper orientation. Thus, the user has a 50-50 chance of guessing the correct orientation of the device on the first attempt. What is needed is a configuration aid that allows a user to correctly orient the connector of any device with respect to its receptacle on the first attempt.